Kayla Story

Kayla Story is a photographer based out of Austin, Texas who grew up a product of the US military. She graduated with a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2011 and has since been working on various personal projects. Most recently she attended on scholarship a workshop with David Hilliard and Andrea Wallace, at Anderson Ranch. Travel is still a main inspiration for most of her work, meeting people and observing their lives. She has been across Europe and even China to do workshops in photography. She is currently in the application process for an MFA program in photography.

Hiraeth is a Welsh word that has no direct translation to English. It roughly means a homesickness or nostalgia for a place that has been lost, but perhaps never actually existed. Originally meant to describe the strife the Welsh had over land battles of long ago, I really found a connection to the word through my work. Belonging is one of the most basic but complicated needs of a human being. My upbringing was nomadic and because of that I am left without that sense of identity that we so often place on where we grow up.

These images revolve around people, their connection with space, the connection I have with them, and that inevitable distance in between. Creating comparison between ideas of community and isolation, abandonment and attachment, introversion and extroversion, chaos and order. Keeping in mind the collective vulnerability of the fact that we all ultimately have little control over the coming and going of things.

SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT...

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